Time
Today is Sunday, the day I write my blog. I also go to church, pay bills, and try to get a couple more hours with the kids before the week begins. Today was going to be critically busy, because yesterday was insanely busy, which cut into today. And because there was a makeup Lacrosse game scheduled for today, on top of the regular one from yesterday. But the rain makeup got rained out, so Jackson is blasting spiders on Neopets next to me while I'm writing my blog.
The reason I write on Sunday is simple. I simply don't have time to write during the week. And that's a bit of a shame, because the act of writing my blog (or any blog, I suppose) is an act of thought. And since my blog is about how agencies and clients can better make the transition they have to make, from traditional to digital, the fact that the only time I have to write about it is a sliver of time on a Sunday afternoon means that the only time I have to think about it is also a relative sliver of time, and that is more than a bit of a shame.
Because there's more to think about than just that. Thinking time, I think, has been squeezed, in general.
The web has accelerated communication, which means the web has also accelerated production. Follow the logic, and it's accelerated everything on down the line to the point that the time alloted to think stuff up, and think about how to make it better, has been tremendously compressed. People (meaning clients, agencies, and, well...people) just expect things faster. I think that's good. What's dangerous is the compression to the point of restriction of the function that, more than any other, makes things good.
To be completely honest, I'm not sure how to solve the dilemma. One way, of course, is to throw manpower at it. And that works, to a point, assuming the manpower (or, rather, personpower) is good at thinking good stuff up. More brains thinking about the same thing will more than likely produce a solution quicker. But as everyone knows, and as we've discussed before, the pricing structure for new communications isn't the same as the pricing structure for old communications, and that's going to affect the personpower budget. You can also simply say, "can't be done," but, guaranteed, as soon as you do, your competitor will chime in with, "I can do it."
Have we reached critical mass yet, where time alloted simply isn't time enough to produce quality? Not yet. But we will, sooner rather than later, industry-wide, I think.
Maybe the key is to temper our promises of speed with a hefty dose of education about the virtues of quality, combined with, of course, instructional discussion about the nature of quality, and how it just takes a little more time than the un-good stuff. Maybe.
I'm going to think about that. Just as soon as I find the time.
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Advertising Marketing Creative Interactive Online Marketing Design Digital Design Blattner Brunner Ernie Mosteller BB Digital
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